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SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum sponsors a presentation by Dr. Myra B. Armstead at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Dyer-Phelps Memorial AME Zion Church, 122 Crescent St. in Saratoga Springs.
Armstead‘s presentation is entitled “From Slavery to Freedom: Blacks in Saratoga from the Colonial Period through Gradual Manumission.” Her first book, “Lord, Please Don’t Take Me in August” is, a comparative study of black life in the resort communities of Saratoga Springs and Newport, Rhode Island during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Dr. Armstead’s research is part of an effort to focus on the diversity of the actors in the drama of our nation’s founding as we prepare for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution,” said Sean Kelleher, Vice President of the History Center and Saratoga Town Historian.
Prior to 1791, Saratoga County was a part of Albany County, and African captives were brought into the area to work as enslaved laborers on lands and in businesses owned by the Anglo-Dutch settler population.
“This talk will focus on slavery and slaveholding, mainly from 1702 to 1805, on the Saratoga Patent lands owned by the Schuyler family in Old Saratoga,“ Armstead said, in a statement. It will also cover the period between 1799 and 1827 when statewide gradual manumission occurred and the impact of this emancipation scheme in the county.
Armstead is a tenured senior faculty member in the History Department at Bard College, where she has taught for 36-plus years, and she holds an endowed chair.
The Dyer-Phelps Memorial AME Zion congregation, organized in 1862, is the oldest African- American church in Saratoga Springs. The church, which was located for many years on Maple Avenue before relocating to its new edifice on Crescent Street in 1975, is led by Rev. Michael Bell.
Seating is limited. Pre-register for the event at: brooksidemuseum.networkforgood.com/events/46718-dr-myra-armstead-from-slavery-to-freedom-blacks-in-saratoga-from-colonial-period-to-gradual-manumission
